Devin Katayama

Devin Katayama joined WFPL News in summer 2011. He adds to the newsroom a diverse perspective having lived and reported in major cities across the U.S. and spending time in Peru reporting on human trafficking. Devin earned the 2011 Studs Terkel Community Media Scholarship Award for his report on homeless youth in Chicago. He reports on education affairs in Kentucky and Indiana.

12:32 pm

Thu August 8, 2013

Kentucky education officials' consideration of Next Generation Science Standards gained national attention last month when The Huffington Post and others picked up on criticism of evolution and climate change during a public hearings on the matter.

Education

12:17 pm

Mon August 5, 2013

The chair of the Kentucky Board of Education doesn’t expect the controversy over newly-adopted science standards to lead to a change in those standards before they're implemented.

The Next Generation Science Standards were developed by an independent consortium of 26 states, including Kentucky, and are part of Kentucky’s 2009 education reforms. They will update what students will be expected to learn in science.

Education

12:28 pm

Wed July 10, 2013

Just two weeks since Kentucky allowed school districts to voluntarily adopt the new compulsory dropout age of 18, enough districts have approved the policy to make it mandatory statewide in four years.

Gov. Steve Beshear and Education Commissioner Terry Holliday announced today that 96 districts—or 55 percent—have adopted the new policy raising the dropout age from 16, which has been in place since 1934, according to state officials.

Education

4:24 pm

Tue July 9, 2013

In four years, Kentucky students won't be able to drop out of school until they're 18.

It appears that enough Kentucky school districts have, or plan to back increasing the compulsory dropout age from 16 to 18 to put the state over the threshold needed to make the change mandatory statewide.

More than 20 school districts that have not yet acted on the policy are scheduled to meet this week, and WFPL has confirmed several of those districts plan to adopt the policy.

3:49 pm

Wed June 5, 2013

The Kentucky Department of Education has released results of the voluntary anonymous teacher survey—known as the TELL Survey—which was conducted this spring.

Nearly 90 percent of Kentucky teachers responded to the survey, which officials says is phenomenal. And over 90 percent of Kentucky schools are eligible to use the survey data to improve working conditions for teachers in schools. To be eligible a school needed at least half of its teachers to take the survey (and at least five teachers for smaller schools).

Education

11:16 am

Thu May 2, 2013

Kentucky has become the most recent state to see problems with the company that administers online exams in public schools and officials say the problem is of concern as more states move to online testing.

Since the beginning of this week, 25 Kentucky school districts have experienced slow or dropped connections to the online system, making it impossible to complete the ACT End of Course Exam.

Education

11:09 am

Thu May 2, 2013

Kentucky has become the most recent state to see problems with the company that administers online exams in public schools and officials say the problem is of concern as more states move to online testing.

Since the beginning of this week, 25 Kentucky school districts have experienced slow or dropped connections to the online system, making it impossible to complete the ACT End of Course Exam.